• Question: how meny times do they have to filter the water to get it cleen

    Asked by naila to Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      That’s kind of hard as some of the process isn’t jsut filtering

      It gets filtered 3-4 times through gravel / sand, charcoal and a large metal strainer

      For more info have a look at
      http://www.yorkshirewater.com/education-and-learning/parent-zone/the-water-cycle.aspx

      and this gives a virtual tour of a water works
      http://www.yorkshirewater.com/education-and-learning/virtual-tour.aspx

    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      I’m sorry Naila I don’t know the answer to this. Maybe they just filter it once, but really well.

      Spring water is filtered through lots of layers of rock and sand, so I imagine that is the best way to do it, but I have a suspicion that chemicals are used..

      Hope someone else can answer you

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Good question! In the water cycle when rain falls it percolates down through the ground and reaches underground networks of water. This process of travelling through the rocks naturally filters the water. It then enters streams or reservoirs which we extract water from to supply us with our water. So nature has played its part in cleaning the water but there are strict laws about its quality so water companies will also have a process for cleaner it more. They will use filtering but also chemical and biological processes to make sure its clean enough for use.

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      I guess it depends on how poor the water quality is in the first place – water that is pretty clean will not need much filtering.

      If you travel into space, on a Space Shuttle for example, pretty much all of the water is recycled – and I mean ALL! Water is essential for life, but it is quite bulky to transport, especially as taking anything into space costs a lot of money (something like £20,000 per kilo – so a cubic metre, or 1 tonne, of water would be £2,000 x 1,000 kilos = £2 million in fuel to take it up there…pretty expensive water!) – so they recycle every drop that they can…

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